


Unexpected

by heatgeneratingtechniques



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Children, Fluff, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-24 01:03:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8350081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heatgeneratingtechniques/pseuds/heatgeneratingtechniques
Summary: In elementary school, Rhett convinces Link to explore an abandoned house with him.





	

The red-shuttered house sat a little ways back from the main road. In spring and summer, the house was half-hidden in the surrounding foliage, its caved-in roof only visible if passers-by knew where to look. It was an ill-kept secret that groups of teenagers often used the place as a hideout while the weather was good. Now, the trees flanking the house having lost most of their crimson and gold leaves, the house stuck out like a sore thumb.

Rhett cruised to a stop on his bike one Saturday afternoon, his face turned towards the house. Link’s bike skid to a stop beside him.

“My dad said they’re gonna tear that house down in a few weeks,” Rhett told him.

“Yeah?” Link was looking away down the road, thinking about how much time they had left to play before dinner. He didn’t want to waste the warm October afternoon with talking about random abandoned houses. Tomorrow was Sunday, meaning putting on his scratchy button-down shirt for church and not being able to play outside. He didn’t want to worry about that yet.

“Have you ever wondered what’s inside?”

Rhett was always wondering about things. Link wondered things sometimes too, but they were usually things like, _what am I getting for Christmas?_ or _how much reading are we going to have to do next week?_ He didn’t spend time wondering about houses or what middle school was going to be like next year or how to hang upside-down from the monkey bars the longest like Rhett did.

“I heard Emmy say that Hannah’s cousins tried to go inside, but they saw a ghost and then they freaked out.”

Rhett looked at him sharply. “Really?” His eyes were wide. “I wonder if we’d be able to see any ghosts...”

Link waited, hands twisting at his handlebars, but Rhett’s attention was still fixed on the house.

“Rhett, can we go now?”

“We need to go into that house.”

“No way! I’m not goin’ in no haunted house.”

Rhett turned his front wheel, nudging it against Link’s bike. “Why not? You scared?”

“No.” Link looked away down the road again in case Rhett saw that he was lying.

“If you go with me—” Rhett prodded Link’s bike harder this time. “—I’ll buy some Clearly Canadian for you.”

Link snapped his gaze back to Rhett, who was watching him as if he was trying to read Link’s mind.

“And some gobstoppers,” Rhett added.

Link sensed a weakness and jabbed at it. “You too scared to go by yourself, bo?”

Rhett rammed his wheel into Link’s bike. “Ain’t scared!” he yelled.

“Hey.” Link pushed Rhett’s wheel away with his foot. “Don’t hit my bike.”

Rhett looked down at the ground for a moment, dragging one foot through the leaves.

“I’m not scared,” he said finally. “It’s just no fun exploring by yourself.”

A car sped towards them, honking as it sent up a spray of leaves. The boys scrambled off the road to let it pass.

“Fine, I’ll go!” Link said when the road was quiet again. Rhett smiled like he’d just won a race.

“Tonight,” he said.

“Why tonight?”

Rhett listed his reasons on his fingers. “Don’t want anybody seeing us. Ghosts only come out at night, so it’s a waste of time to try seeing them during the day. And Cole’s on a camping trip with his youth group and they don’t get back until after church tomorrow. If we go when he’s not home, we don’t gotta worry about him bein’ a snitch.”

“Oh.” Link understood the last reason well, as Emmy could be a huge tattletale at times. “Fine.”

Rhett had been thinking about this a _lot._ As they rode back into town, he shared his plan. Since Link lived closer to the house, Rhett would bike there to wake him up and they’d continue on to the house together. Link reminded him that they would need flashlights. Rhett said he wanted to bring his dad’s camera, but Link pointed out that if one of them was busy with the camera, they’d only have one flashlight and wouldn’t be able to spot any ghosts as easily. Rhett reluctantly agreed.

That night, Link went to bed early, but he couldn’t keep his eyes closed. He listened to the sounds of Emmy laughing on the phone in her room, of his mom and his step-dad Jimmy talking as they watched TV downstairs. Gradually, their chatter quieted. He heard footsteps on the stairs and his mom’s gentle tapping on the door. She poked her head into his room, smiling gently.

“Are you feeling better, baby?”

“Yes, Mom.” Link had left dinner early, claiming a stomachache. It wasn’t entirely a lie. He did feel a little sick from eating too much candy with Rhett earlier.

He held still while she came over to give him a goodnight kiss, afraid that she might be able to see the lie in his eyes or guess that he’d hidden one of Jimmy’s flashlights under his pillow. She kissed him on the forehead, brushed the hair from his forehead, and asked if he’d finished his homework for the weekend. He nodded, afraid that he might tell her Rhett’s plan if he opened his mouth.

After she left, he rolled over and tried to fall asleep.

He jolted awake to the sound of sharp taps on his window — Rhett throwing rocks to get his attention. His clock read 11:42 as he grabbed his flashlight and a sweatshirt. He climbed down from his window to join a grinning Rhett in the yard.

“Look what I got.” Rhett held up a butterfly knife in one hand.

“Whoa!” Link’s eyes widened. “Is that Cole’s?”

“Yeah.” Rhett snapped the blade open, turning it slowly in the moonlight. “Nice, ain’t it?”

Link shook his head. “You gonna stab a ghost?”

“Maybe.” Rhett closed the blade and tucked it in his pocket. “You ready?”

Link’s bike was locked away in the garage, so he rode on the back of Rhett’s, holding on to his friend’s shoulders while Rhett pedaled standing up. They quickly left the neighborhood behind,  silent and dark homes giving way to woods and open fields. Rhett was chattering away about what his dad had told him about the house, how it had been a home for an old couple who had passed away years ago and was being demolished to make way for a housing development. Link looked up at the moon, bright and still, and felt an unexpected thrill of excitement. Maybe finding a ghost wouldn’t be so bad. If they did, all the kids at school would definitely be jealous on Monday.

The house looked bigger in the dark. Scarier. The front door hung crookedly off its hinges, a pile of leaves spilling out from within. It was easy for Link to imagine silvery fingers floating from the windows, hands reaching out threateningly. Link eased closer to Rhett and pulled his BB gun from his pocket.

“Are you scared?” he whispered.

“No,” Rhett said quickly, but he was whispering too. “Are you?”

“No,” Link echoed, and he meant it. His heart was thumping, but it was the kind of thumping that came when he was excited to show Rhett one of his new toys. And besides, what was there to be afraid of when he had Rhett and a flashlight with him? “Hey Rhett, it’s like we’re Indiana Jones.”

Any other time, Rhett would have corrected him, pointing out obvious differences between their current situation and _Raiders of the Lost Ark._ But tonight, scowling in the moonlight, he only nodded.

The porch creaked loud enough that Link imagined someone leaning out from one of the upper windows and yelling at them to shut up. Rhett went first, testing each step before putting his foot down.

“The wood’s rotted,” he explained in a whisper. “Who knows where we’ll end up if it breaks.”

“The basement.” Link peered past him through the open door. There were leaves scattered about, moonlight streaming in from windows long since smashed. He was already thinking about how he and Rhett were going to tell this story to their friends at school.

The house smelled dirty, Link thought. His flashlight beam pointed out some animal droppings that he pointed out to Rhett.

“Don’t step in ‘em!” Rhett whispered, tugging on his arm.

They crossed the entryway and peered into the other rooms. Link imagined the furniture that belonged in each — a couch and TV in the front living room, a table and chairs in the dining room. A staircase extended up into deeper darkness, but Link refused to go up there no matter how Rhett insisted.

As they peered into what was probably the kitchen — the cabinets mostly stripped of their doors and full of bundles of sticks that Rhett said were probably empty birds’ nests — Link’s flashlight passed over a bundle of blankets on the floor.

“Hey Rhett, what’s that?”

They stepped closer, floorboards creaking madly with each step. The rotting smell was stronger now, so much that both boys covered their noses with their shirts. Link almost jumped when Rhett grabbed his hand.

“What’s that?”

Link followed the light of his wavering flashlight to see small brown sticks resting on top of the blanket.

The sticks looked strange to Link. He squinted and suddenly he realized what those sticks were.

Fingers.

There was screaming, Link remembered later, screaming and running and the sickening heat of pure terror. Link was outside, sprinting for Rhett’s bike, when he realized he was alone.

“Rhett?” he gasped, spinning around. “Rhett wh—”

A piercing cry tore through the silence from the house and in a terrible moment, Link saw those fingers grabbing Rhett and dragging him away into the dark _and there’s not anything i can do because all I have is a flashlight and that can’t hurt a ghost._

In the dark, he saw fingers everywhere, twitching madly, shadowy skeleton heads lurking just out of view.  He shut his eyes, but that was even worse because now he couldn’t see the ghost coming.

The scream again. “ _Liiiiiiiiink!”_

Link shook his head. He was sweating, his knees were shaking, and he could hardly breathe, but he knew he’d feel worse if he left Rhett to the mercy of whatever was in the house.

With everything in his brain screeching at him to take Rhett’s bike and pedal back to town, he crept back into the house. He couldn’t even hold the flashlight steady as he crossed the threshold, one hesitant step at a time.

Rhett’s yells came from a new hole in the floorboards, a rotted space he’d stepped on in his haste to run away.

“Rhett” Link whispered. He tiptoed forward until the boards began to groan alarmingly, then sank down to the floor. “Rhett!”

The screaming stopped. “L-Link?” He sounded like he was crying.

“Yes.” Link swung his flashlight around a few times, just to make sure that there weren’t any fingers twitching at doorways. Part of him knew he should be terrified right now, but there was another part of his mind, a silent and steady part, that only wanted to save Rhett. “Are you okay, bo?”

“M-my knee’s bleeding.” Rhett sniffed. “Th-the stairs down here are broken, Link.”

“Do you still have your knife? And your flashlight?”

“Yeah.”

The wind picked up, blowing leaves through the broken windows above them. Link thought he heard a _taptaptap_ from somewhere nearby.

_No._

“I-is there anything down there you could cut? Like make a rope or something?”

“Uh...” Link waited. “There’s crates piled up here.” Another sniff. “I could try to move one of ‘em.”

It seemed to take hours for Rhett to drag the crate beneath the hole. Link waited, calling encouragement as his best friend pushed the box across the floor. He was beginning to feel a new dread now. What if he couldn’t get Rhett out? What if that hand was moving towards them now, bones creaking as it scrabbled for something to grab—

“Link?”

Link gave a start. Rhett had climbed onto the crate and was just a few feet from the hole in the floorboards. He stowed his flashlight away, reached out both hands, and Link grabbed him and _pulled._

He didn’t know where he found the strength to lift Rhett, who was already head and shoulders taller and a whole lot heavier than him. But somehow, he did it, ignoring the sound of tearing clothing, and they collapsed on the floor, gasping.

Rhett got up first, his face was full of wonder. “You’re pretty strong, Link.” He sounded impressed.

“Stronger than you?” Link said hopefully.

“Almost,” Rhett admitted.

Link grinned, and suddenly the thought of that creepy hand didn’t seem half as scary anymore.

Outside, Rhett swiftly returned to his usual confident self.

“Someone died there,” he said matter-of-factly as he retrieved his bike. “We need to tell your parents and they’ll have to call the police.” The scrape on his knee and his torn jacket were the only signs he’d been through anything unusual.

Link, on the other hand, felt exhaustion wash over him. His hands hurt from pulling Rhett from the basement. The moonlight was brighter now, and everything seemed softer around him, as if he was dreaming. His eyes were burning though, which was definitely not dream-like.

“Link, you wanna—” Rhett turned and saw him. “Oh.”

The tears came so fast that he couldn’t even pretend that he’d gotten something in his eye this time. Link swiped his sweatshirt sleeve across his face.

“It’s... it’s okay, bo.” Rhett’s arms were around him in an awkward hug. “You got me out of the basement, didn’tcha?”

“Wh-who was that in there?” Link stammered between sobs.

“I don’t know.” Rhett rubbed his back almost the same way Link’s mom did when he was sad, hand moving in slow and comforting circles. “Hey,” he said desperately, “You don’t need to cry. We’re all right!”

Link clenched his jaw in a desperate attempt to stop, and then he really _did_ stop at the feel of Rhett’s lips on his forehead.

“Don’t cry, bo,” Rhett said again. He kissed him again on the temples and, when Link looked up at him in confusion, right on the end of his nose.

“Why are you kissing me?”

Rhett stiffened. “I don’t know.”

Link realized he was clinging to his best friend like a big baby. He pulled away, did his best to dry his tears. “I was really scared.”

“I was scared, too,” Rhett said. “Look.” He took one of Link’s hands and pressed it to the t-shirt beneath his jacket. Link felt his face get hot at the feel the rapid heartbeat there, but he didn’t want to move his hand away.

They ended up sneaking back through Link’s window together. Rhett didn’t seem to want to leave him, and Link wasn’t inclined to let him leave. He sneaked into the bathroom to get bandaids for Rhett’s knee. When he got back to his room, he doubled over with silent laughter at the sight of Rhett wearing his too-short pajama bottoms. They squeezed into Link’s bed together, giddy at the thought of an impromptu sleepover.

Gradually, the adrenaline drained away and yawns took over. Link snuggled in close to Rhett, glad when an arm wrapped across his shoulders.

“I won’t tell anyone you were crying,” Rhett said graciously.

“Hey you were crying too!” Link snapped.

Rhett shrugged at that, but Link could tell he was a little embarrassed. So he kissed Rhett this time in the same places he’d been kissed, once on the forehead and once on the nose. Rhett grinned, his eyes drifting closed.

“Hey Rhett?”

“Yeah.”

“What are we gonna do about that... that...”

“That body?” Rhett’s voice was firm. “I told you, we gotta tell our parents.”

Link shivered at that. “No!”

“We have to!” Rhett whispered back.

“We’ll get in trouble—”

“Yep.” Rhett was frowning now. “But you can’t just leave a dead body in a house.” One of his hands came up to cup the side of Link’s face. “You’re not gonna cry again, are you?”

“No.” Link brushed his hand away. He made up his mind then; if Rhett didn’t care about getting in trouble, then he didn’t either.

In the morning, Link awoke to his mom shaking him gently, her face perplexed at the sight of Rhett beside him. They told her what had happened, which set off a flurry of questioning and phone calls that culminated in two police officers who came over to ask them to tell the story all over again.

Link ended up getting grounded for leaving the house, but his mom also made his favorite meal for dinner that evening, which was a bit confusing. He got the full story while watching the evening news with his mom the next day. The body in the house was of a man who had recently gone missing after failing to repay some debts. He’d gone to the house and had poisoned himself. Link tried not to think about that hand too much; it made him feel slightly sick.

At school, he learned that Rhett had gotten a spanking and had been grounded as well. All of their friends wanted to hear the story which he and Rhett told many times. They quickly got bored of the facts and started adding new things in to make the story fun again.

They finally had a moment alone at recess after telling a riveting tale of leaping over holes in the floor and narrowly escaping skeletal hands that shot up to grab them. Side-by-side they sat cross-legged by the playground fence, taking turns making grass whistles.

“Cole’s jealous that we went without him,” Rhett said. “He doesn’t know I took his knife, though. I put it back before he got home.”

“Cool.”

Rhett fit a blade of grass between his thumbs, brought it to his mouth, and blew, the resulting screech loud enough to draw glares from a few girls who were talking further down the fence.

“Hey, Link?”

Rhett’s voice sounded a little strange. Link glanced over at him, but his best friend was busy pulling up grass.

“I don’t think I should’ve kissed you.”

“Why not?” Link brought his knees up to his chest. “Do I smell bad?”

Rhett shrugged. “Sometimes. But I think we should save that stuff for girls.”

“Really?” There were several girls playing double dutch on the blacktop. Link wrinkled his nose at the thought of kissing one of them. “That’s kind of... girls are kinda annoying.”

Rhett’s face was red now, but he pressed on. “Some of them aren’t.”

Link laughed at that. “Do you _like_ one of them?”

Rhett shook his head so hard that Link knew he was lying.

“Well can I still hug you then?” Link prodded.

“Maybe,” Rhett said, smoothing another blade of grass between his fingers. “When no one’s looking.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was a weird little thing I wanted to write before getting back to more present-day Rhink. Thanks for reading. Comments/critiques/kudos are welcome as always. :)


End file.
